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Jimmy Haslip's
fiery solos are a high water mark of many Yellowjackets
tracks. Most recently
Haslip has produced numerous artists to include: Merilyn Scott,
Sandro Albert, Rita Terri Lyne Carrington, Nestor Torres, Michael
Franks, Rita Coolidge, Brenda Russell, Bobby Caldwell, to name a
few..
Haslip grew
up in a rich musical environment listening to Latin music icons
like Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Machito, Ray Barretto, Celia
Cruz and Eddie Palmieri. He learned how to dance and play authentically
on the claves, maracas, cowbell, bongos and the guido, which gave
him that keen sense of time and rhythm that surfaces in his bass
playing today. In addition to being influenced by the popular music
of the time (Beatles, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix), Jimmy was exposed
to jazz --Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck
and classical music --Debussy, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mozart and
Mahler. He picked up bass at the age of fifteen and taught himself
how to play. "Actually the very first time I saw an electric
bass, was at a junior high Valentine's day dance. There was a live
band playing and the bass player had an reddish/orange Hagstrom
bass and a small Standel bass amp. It was then that I knew I wanted
to play the electric bass! What a feeling! I'll never forget it
as long as I live. It was my very first real spark of creative passion!"
Jimmy credits
Ron Smith and later Jaco Pastorius as inspiring teachers. "The
learning process is never ending. The key is to always strive and
search for knowledge. In learning new things everyday, there will
be inspiration. That inspiration will thirst for knowledge and so
the endless cycle goes. They will feed each other infinitely and
theoretically the ‘creative well’ will never run dry,"
says Haslip. Haslip plays and endorse MTD basses (hand made instruments by a Luthier named Mike Tobias) and D'Addario Strings (Special Medium Light Prisms)."For amplification I use and endorse SWR Engineering power amps and speaker cabinets. In the studio I usually just go into a direct box (preferably a Cabletek Direct Box or some kind of tube box, for achieving the ultimate warm/acoustic-like bass sound). Occasionally I will use an amp in the studio (mostly by request). So I will usually use an SWR Engineering Red Head Combo amp or a Baby Blue Combo amp. These amps have an extremely clean sound and a very strong, powerful punch for their size. A great recording amp for studio work!," says Haslip. As for other
instruments: Mr Haslip dabbles on the guitar and piano/synthesizers,
in order to write music. "I'm not very adept on these instruments.
I can play some very simple blues riffs on the harmonica,"
says Haslip.
Full Discography available here Current Credits:
Jimmy's collaborative participation on Bobby McFerrin's Bang Zoom
(where McFerrin uses his voice as an instrument without singing
one word) has gotten rave reviews and he's also proud of his production
work on a live recording in Amsterdam (Jimmy was member of this
group for over a year) with Liveline. For more information
contact:
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